I still don’t quite understand the animosity with which the RTX 4070 Ti is often viewed. While some see the card as an overpriced, memory-less drag, I just saw a rapid, feature-packed graphics card whose 12GB of VRAM is demonstratively more than enough for 99.95% of games at 4K. At the very least, it’s a better deal than the RTX 4080 at that resolution.
Now, though, we can all agree: no one should buy the RTX 4070 Ti. Not when the RTX 4070 Ti Super is already available and does a better, hopefully less controversial job of sleek 4K without having to invest in the level of the RTX 4080 (or RTX 4080 Super).
This GPU’s super-specific upgrades are very much focused on VRAM, both ditching the infamous 192-bit interface for a 256-bit one and filling out the pool with up to 16GB of GDDR6X memory. That puts it on par with both versions of the RTX 4080, and makes the escalate in CUDA cores (from 7680 in the RTX 4070 Ti to 8448) and base clock speed escalate (from 2310MHz to 2340MHz) look even more modest in comparison.
There are also plenty of factory-overclocked partner cards. I used the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Aero OC, which has the same fantastically tranquil cooling system as the RTX 4070 Super Aero OC, and also boosts the clock from 2610MHz to 2655MHz. Price? That seems to be above average for the RTX 4070 Ti Super, although cheaper versions start at £770/$800. That’s a bit less than the most budget-friendly RTX 4070 Tis did when they launched last year, though it’s still a long, steep step up from the sub-£600 RTX 4070 Super.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Review: 4K Tests
Nvidia tends to present its XX70 models as 1440p specialists, but the RTX 4070 Ti Super still looks very much like a 4K card to me, consistently averaging above 60fps at max quality settings, often breaking the 100fps barrier, and that’s without using performance-boosting DLSS and/or DLSS’s 3-frame generation.
To get there, there are some tasty tweaks to be made to the RTX 4070 Ti, including a 23% improvement in Horizon Zero Dawn and 21% in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Other differences aren’t as stark, though, like a paltry 3fps boost in F1 22.
Of all the improvements that the three 40-series Super GPUs offer, the RTX 4070 Ti Super sits — perhaps rightfully — in the middle. It doesn’t offer the same degree of frame-rate boost that the RTX 4070 Super offers over its predecessor, but it also doesn’t struggle like the RTX 4080 Super did to occasionally improve 4K performance at all. The bigger, thicker memory helps here and there, so you might see better stability in a few specific games, but it’s not a completely transformative change. Almost — almost – as if having only 12GB of 192-bit VRAM was merely slightly suboptimal, and not a blatant personal insult.
That performance (and its price) also puts the RTX 4070 Ti Super in contention with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which has an edge over Nvidia’s offering in a few games. It’s a much smaller contest, mind you, when you start throwing ray tracing and DLSS into the mix. Take Watch Dogs: Legion, where the RX 7900 XTX wins in terms of native resolution and raster lighting. But turn on ray tracing, and its 83 fps average drops to 35 fps, while the RTX 4070 Ti Super’s more RT-friendly Ada Lovelace architecture cushions the drop to 40 fps. Watch Dogs: Legion also lacks FSR support, so the RX 7900 XTX lacks a scaling option to compete with DLSS, which the RTX 4070 Ti Super can employ in quality mode to return to 65 fps.
Hitman 3, which I know I should now call Hitman: World of Assassination, also shows the RTX 4070 Ti Super’s better handling of tricky ray-tracing effects. Again, the RX 7900 XTX wins without them, but that 171 fps completely collapses with the full RT options, dropping to 33 fps. While the RTX 4070 Ti Super’s equivalent of 38 fps isn’t all that high, the fact that it only dropped there from a lower starting point of 131 fps shows that the GeForce card is simply better at absorbing the frame-rate hit. The same goes for the game’s scaling, too: aided by FSR 2 in the Quality setting, the RX 7900 XTX hit 178 fps without ray-tracing and 55 fps with it. The RTX 4070 Ti Super using DLSS in Quality mode only reached 160 fps without ray tracing, but with it it stayed at 61 fps.
The relative lack of games that support FSR 3 – and Nvidia cards that can employ it anyway – also means there’s no compelling rival for DLSS frame-rate 3. That also works well on the RTX 4070 Ti Super. At native 4K, Cyberpunk 2077 could barely get down to 23fps with Ultra and Psycho-quality settings, but the combination of frame-rate and DLSS scaling in Performance got it to a whopping 93fps. That’s just shy of the 96fps the RTX 4080 Super achieved with identical settings, though still no faster than the RTX 4070 Super’s score.
Speaking of its Super brethren, the RTX 4070 Ti Super more often than not lands squarely between the other two in terms of average performance; Cyberpunk 2077’s frame-rate score is a bit of an anomaly. As such, it’s still a better option than the RTX 4070 Super if you want reliably sleek 4K, and it’s a better choice than the RTX 4080 Super – although now that the latter has been released at a lower price point than the RTX 4080, choosing between the two more pricey options is more of a chin-tapping exercise. You might find that the RTX 4080 Super makes more sense if you’ve got a really fancy monitor that can handle both 4K and refresh rates above 120Hz.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Review: 1440p
This Other The reason the RTX 4070 Ti Super is a better candidate for 4K is that unless you’re constantly upgrading your PC to the latest, greatest, least bottlenecked processors, it ultimately doesn’t offer much at 1440p that you can’t get elsewhere. While there are decent leaps over the original RTX 4070 Ti – Forza Horizon 5, Metro Exodus and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla all benefit particularly well – it also means venturing deeper into the realm of diminishing returns, and when you’re well into triple-digit frame rates, there’s not all that much of a noticeable difference in smoothness between this and the RTX 4070 Super.
On the other hand, there is a drop-off in scores between the RTX 4070 Ti Super and the RX 7900 XTX, which works very much in the Nvidia GPU’s favor. The only exception, funnily enough, is the former’s massive lead in Forza Horizon 5. Beyond that, the difference between the two really comes down to DLSS and ray tracing support, which, again, can’t be beaten on the RTX 40 series.
Back to Hitman Whatever the Suffix Is, both are roughly on par in raster settings, but adding max ray tracing drops the RTX 4070 Ti Super to only 96 fps. On the RX 7900 XTX it’s 63 fps. The Ultra RT setting in Watch Dogs Legion also saw the RTX 4070 Ti Super average 68 fps, while the RX 7900 XTX dropped to 57 fps, while in Metro Exodus similar settings produced 100 fps on the GeForce and 82 fps on the Radeon.
DLSS 3 may also be worth using at this resolution. Cyberpunk 2077’s Ultra/Psycho ray tracing can actually run playably at 1440p, with the RTX 4070 Ti Super averaging 43fps. But DLSS scaling at the quality level could boost that 73fps before frame generation to 122fps, which is more than double the original frame rate output. AMD doesn’t have an answer to that question yet – even in the few games that do have FSR 3 frame generation, it’s rarely as sleek and immaculate as DLSS 3 – so again, the real competition comes from within. The RTX 4070 Super managed 110fps under the same conditions, and given how much cheaper it is, the extra 12fps isn’t a particularly compelling argument for the Ti version. Unless you think you can go all the way to 4K.
In those shining 2160p heights, I still think the RTX 4070 Ti Super is a good GPU. Or at least a good alternative to the improved, cheaper RTX 4080 Super. Current RTX 4070 Ti owners probably shouldn’t upgrade to it either, but those looking to upgrade from their RTX 20-series cards should definitely look into the Super before the original.
…However unfair it may sound.
This review is based on a retail sample provided by Gigabyte.
